


Of Kindred Spirits and Fairy Lights

by lunaseemoony



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Penny Dreadful (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Loss, Season/Series 03 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-25
Updated: 2016-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-17 03:51:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8129408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunaseemoony/pseuds/lunaseemoony
Summary: Time can’t heal all wounds. But maybe the company of kindred spirits can soften the scars they leave behind.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For Billie Piper Appreciation Week. Also counts towards timepetalsprompts ficlet prompt for any BP character since I’ve got two here. There’s angst ahead, but also hurt/comfort. Spoilers to the end of Penny Dreadful.

The planet’s three moons all slumbered beneath a clear, deep navy sky freckled with sparkling cream and yellow stars; lulled by crickets’ songs, the gentle whispering of low tide waves, and the crackling of a thousand tiny flames. That and the warm, somber sighs of three kindred spirits kneeling in a row on a dock watching their yellow, red, and blue lanterns join the countless others dotting the shore with a rainbow of lights. 

Brona sat between the Doctor and Rose, hugging her arms as she watched her lantern being tugged away by the gentle evening tide. “Met a fella once who told me about fairy lights. Reckon this is what he was on about.”

The Doctor shrugged off his leather jacket and draped it over Brona’s shoulders. Only then was she aware of the tears streaking her cool face. He spoke to the ocean, solemn gaze fixed to his own lantern. “Not far off. In the festival of lights the locals light a lantern for every person lost that year to guide their souls across the vast ocean to join the others in the sky.”

Rose’s comforts came quietly but were no less significant. She wrapped an arm around Brona’s and rested her head on her now leather-shielded shoulder. She knew too well who Brona’s lantern was for. The pair of them had exchanged stories of a father and a daughter over a bottle of wine huddled on the couch in front of a roaring fire aboard the TARDIS while Brona came to terms with being free of consumption. 

Comforting as Rose was, it was the Doctor who convinced Brona it was okay to accept his kind gestures. He’d hear nothing of being nobody and not deserving the TARDIS’s healing touch, much less to travel in time and space. Brona had recognized the anguish of grief the Doctor carried on his shoulders but upon hearing it as he barely glossed over it, her heart ached for the man from the stars in a way it hadn’t for another soul in ages. He didn’t dust his words with sweetness. Time couldn’t heal all wounds. His TARDIS could rid her of the curse on her lungs but not the deep scars on a person’s heart. 

Sat between two kindred spirits, at least company could put a plaster on the internal wounds. Whether she believe the locals or not, it wasn’t lighting the lantern and letting it go that soothed her, but rather seeing it among all the others. She could suspend her disbelief just long enough to take a morsel of comfort in her little pink lantern not being alone. Rose and Brona watched a little girl pointing to the sky claiming a space for her lost grandparent among the stars. While they did the same the Doctor’s face turned cold. There weren’t enough lanterns on the planet for all those he’d lost, much less space in the sky for them. The sentiment was worn all over him. 

But an instant later it was gone, replaced by a beaming grin as the fireworks began. For a man who’d lost so much the Doctor carried boundless amounts of hope with him. Brona found herself giving in to the Doctor’s invitation to travel with them for the simple reason that in sharing the universe with others he gave off an insufferably infectious zest for life. Forget the sky. The man’s eyes glimmered with his own skyful of stars and his genuine smile at company was brighter than all of them anyway. 


End file.
